Newburgh mayor learning through her cancer journey

Leonard Sparks Times Herald-Record @LeonSparks845

Saturday

Feb 18, 2017 at 5:58 PMFeb 18, 2017 at 5:58 PM

CITY OF NEWBURGH – For a month, City of Newburgh Mayor Judy Kennedy minimized the belly growth, caught up in a life filled with government and city meetings, the renovations at a new house and social events elected officials are expected to attend.

Too many parties.

Maybe too many dinners, she thought.

“The last four or five days, it’s like something’s really wrong here; I feel like I’m eight months pregnant,” Kennedy said.

One day after an internist ordered tests, Kennedy received on May 18, 2016, the diagnosis: ovarian cancer. Two days later doctors drained 5½ liters of fluid from her stomach, launching a journey that has brought her near death’s door, but also back to life.

It has been a journey in which a woman who favored alternative remedies over traditional medicine relented and now credits chemotherapy with her recovery. It has also been one in which the professional life coach has softened her resistance to asking for help and learned to take more time for herself.

“It’s a journey,” Kennedy said. “And I say it’s a journey with twists and turns because I don’t actually know how I’m going to get to the end, except at the end I expect to be well and my body working the way it’s supposed to work again.”

Until the doctor at St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital delivered the diagnosis, Kennedy had done much to keep her body working as it should.

A diet without red meat and sodas. Lots of vegetables and water.

But women often experience no symptoms in the early stages of ovarian cancer, and just 20 percent of cases are diagnosed early, according to the American Cancer Society. Kennedy calls it a “silent killer.”

“There’s nothing, except I’m gaining weight,” she said. “And you start attributing that to all kinds of other things.”

Kennedy decided against chemotherapy, choosing remedies that included freshly-squeezed vegetable juices, Chinese herbs, acupuncture and Reiki. The number of cancer antigens in Kennedy’s blood dropped, as did her resistance to help from others.

Friends brought food, shopped, squeezed juices and helped Kennedy move into the new house. Two of her sons arrived – one from British Columbia and the other from Texas – to help unpack belongings after the move and to give other kinds of support.

“Asking for help is not very easy for somebody who is fiery independent,” Kennedy said. “But that’s part of being humble; it’s part of being gracious.”

In August, Kennedy underwent laparoscopic surgery. In the wake of the surgery her cancer antigens began increasing and fluids again began accumulating in her stomach. As she began to rethink the opposition to chemotherapy, Kennedy’s digestive tract became blocked.

Eating became hard. Even swallowing a glass of water brought pain. Kennedy sought an appointment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, but the earliest they could see her was Oct. 2.

Eventually, local surgeon Hannah Brooks introduced Kennedy to Julia Schafer-Cutillo of the Hudson Valley Cancer Center in Fishkill. Schafer-Cutillo saw her the next day and hospitalized Kennedy at Vassar Brothers Medical Center that night.

“From my perspective, if that had gone on another week, I don’t know whether I’d be here on not,” Kennedy said. “Things were getting pretty darn serious.”

Once a week, Kennedy drives to Fishkill for a one-hour chemotherapy session at Hudson Valley Cancer Center. She sits in a room with other patients – sharing conversations, snacks and words of encouragement.

A deeper appreciation for people undergoing life-threatening illnesses is also part of Kennedy’s transformation. Back in Newburgh, the do-it-myself workaholic is re-balancing the scales of work and life, and shrinking workweeks that often reached 50 hours for a mayor’s position that is officially part-time.

“I think this cancer is definitely a teacher,” Kennedy said.

"I’ve always looked at most of the hardships in my life – and I’ve gone through two or three catalysts of real life-changing events – each that have propelled me forward as a better person. But each has required the walk through the dark night of the soul first.”

lsparks@th-record.com

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